And on our grand tour of Kent, I wrote the following singalong chorus.
It's a dump
It's a dump
It's a dumper dumper dump.
The inspiration for this ditty was the coastal town of Folkstone. It must have been over 40 years since we were last there. The only reason I remember it from the 1970s is a friend of mine lived there and we visited whilst I was recovering from a hernia operation. Nowadays hernia operations are a day procedure. In out, shake it all about, a cup of tea and onwards.
Back in those days it was eight days in hospital. There were four of us in a large ward having hernias sorted. All we had to do post op was eat, drink and be merry (or in this case play cards and watch television in the day room). By the time I came out, I had put on so much weight from three square meals a day that I couldn't do my trousers up! I do remember a sadistic nurse saying to me once I had come round. "I bet you'd like a nice creamy, milky coffee wouldn't you." "Yes please," I responded without a second's hesitation. "Well there it is," she said pointing to a radiator the other side of the ward.
I wouldn't say I leapt out of bed. In fact I gingerly peeled the sheets back and dropped onto the floor just as the pain hit.
"Oh dear me," I shouted. Actually it was a lot stronger than that but this is a family blog.
So we went to Folkstone and I didn't do much walking. Shuffled a bit. This time I had no problems walking apart from a sore knee due to too much walking!
So we got the bus from where we were staying and had high hopes of Folkstone. There are some nice bits but they are few and far between. Much of the front seems to be an industrial site of some kind. There is a hideous hotel that sticks out like a sore thumb and the remains of a disused railway track and station at the harbour (why is it that so many holiday places and railway stations were on a sea front only to re-site them further away? This is certainly the case with Great Yarmouth where they replaced one adjacent to the seafront with one the best part of a mile away. In Norwich they replaced one at the top of the main shopping street with a station a mile away).
In the town centre there are loads of empty and peeling premises which rather make a nonsense of the claim that the centre is being re-generated to produce a town where people just want to be and to live and work in. That's what it said on a poster. There's a blue plaque on one of the buildings pointing out that many years ago Jimi Hendricks played in a building opposite. Sadly the building, whatever it may have been, has been demolished and replaced by an awful machine arcade which was shut anyway.
You kind of get the flavour of this place. It's a kind of "well we've been there so we have no need to go again." I did go in a specific shop (can't say which one at the moment) and somebody in front was having problems with a credit card. The owner was trying to keep everyone cheerful by giving out packets of love hearts and telling jokes.
The problem with taking photos is automatically taking shots that make a place, however bad it may be, look good. So included with this blog are some pictures of Folkstone along with some of a return trip to Hythe where we came upon a very sad story in the local church which is set on a hill above the town. I will relate this one in tomorrow's blog.
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Whilst on our holiday, I was watching the local news and they had an item on a small local village that developers are threatening to swamp with houses. It currently has a population of a couple of hundred I believe. But planners are looking to add 900 houses to Eccles in Kent. To me this is incomprehensible. It's something that is happening throughout the country and certainly in the area we live in. It's something I have mentioned time after time after time. But the infrastructure isn't there and our dear Government is making no attempt to provide it. All they are concerned with is building as many houses as possible in as quick a time as possible without any thought or concerns for the pressure on local services and local people. That is one of the primary reasons I couldn't vote Conservative in any national election. Other reasons of course include the fact that we have a morally bankrupt leader and also an MP in South Norfolk who still seems unable to answer questions e-mailed to him. Rant over.
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I think everyone is aware that this year sees the Queen's platinum jubilee, but did you know that Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap is also 70 this year? The BBC is 100 and Winnie the Pooh also reaches his century.